How Did Trump’s Immigration Policy Affect Los Angeles’ Olympics Bid?

The Olympic games have been the biggest show of international sports for centuries. Whichever city holds the Summer Olympics every four years carries a noble responsibility for their country, and they are expected to represent their country by excelling in each Olympic sport. The United States hasn’t hosted the Summer Olympics since 1996 in Atlanta. Fortunately, three cities including Los Angeles had bid for their Olympic chance for 2024. Unfortunately, Los Angeles lost to Paris, but the City of Angels was rewarded the hosting for 2028 instead.

How Did Immigration Affect This Decision?

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was a key player in the city’s 2024 bid, has spoken out multiple times about the new immigration policy. The executive order prohibited multiple Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States, which would make hosting a worldwide international sporting event more difficult. Los Angeles has successfully hosted the games twice before, the last time being in 1984. Since then, however, the process of immigration and acquiring a visa has become increasingly more complicated.

Our country has had a history of banning immigrants for many years now. We’ve been banning Asian immigrant workers since the late 18th century, and since the Syrian conflict we’ve been trying to properly vet people coming out of the turbulent country. We’ve had multiple waves of severe immigrant bans in our country, and we’ve still been able to host the largest international entertainment event numerous times. The city of Los Angeles didn’t let the strict new immigration policy discourage it from attempting to bid for host of the Olympic games.